Vapourware Sui Generis + Exanima Early Access

[BlackGoat]

Man, I was hoping they'd change the UI to something fixed. I hate fiddling with the windows in this game

 

[oldbonebrown]

The game desperately needs a keyring

 

[Technomancer]

The game desperately needs a keyring

The vast majority of keys are single-use.

 

[deama]

So I last played this like 4 years ago, how different is it now?

 

[Technomancer]

So I last played this like 4 years ago, how different is it now?

We have magic and new monsters now.

 

[deama]

So I last played this like 4 years ago, how different is it now?

We have magic and new monsters now.

I remember seeing the outside world in some trailer a while back, is there like a wilderness area now or is it all still inside some musty dungeon?

 

[Grotesque]

I remember backing it a lifetime ago.

Could be this game being the winner of the most long developed kickstarted game of all time?

 

[Technomancer]

I remember seeing the outside world in some trailer a while back, is there like a wilderness area now or is it all still inside some musty dungeon?

Some outdoor arenas are planned in the future arena update but what you are speaking about is Sui Generis, the game that will be actively developed only after Exanima is finished. So yes, we are stuck in dungeons for a long while.

 

[Joggerino]

The game desperately needs a keyring

The vast majority of keys are single-use.

Which one is not?

 

[Technomancer]

Which one is not?

One that you are likely to find first. That opens both kennels and tavern path to the rest of the level.

 

[Technomancer]

17/5/21

This week we've been mostly trying to complete the new GUI system, but also getting content ready for the arena update proper.

One of the most significant changes we wanted to make was to the skills UI, it was quite ugly and confusing, and certainly didn't fit the new direction for the interface. The new interface is a much more graphical full screen UI, it's a lot nicer to look at and easier to navigate, it provides more useful information and feedback and has some nice animations. We still want to add some background images for each skill, but other than that it's complete and functional.


New Skill Interface
The all new skill interface is fully functional and a very nice upgrade. We do still plan to add some background images for each skill.


We've now switched the entire core GUI system to a new one that uses skins and a new rendering system. This is much more versatile and powerful, and we're also considering features like allowing players to choose from different designs and make their own colour schemes. There is also an important technical aspect to this overhaul. In creating the new rendering engine one goal was to switch to a more modern graphics API usage and complete abstraction from it, but to really complete this change we also had to revamp our GUI, which again is rendered on the GPU. We didn't think we'd do this for a while, but this new GUI system does it. This will allow us to strip out a huge chunk of legacy functionality, improving compatibility and performance with many GPU drivers.

On the procedural weapon front, we've completed a bunch more core assets that will allow us to make a wide range of new weapons, but also expanded a bit on how modular these can be. We can use more components, set up more rules for how different components interact, which deformations should be applied and so on. These kind of things allow us to effectively multiply how many variations can be generated, and generally support more designs, greatly increasing variety in weapons.

We're looking to get the new UI and a fresh batch of procedural weapons as well as various other small but still important improvements we've made over the past month into the beta branch ASAP, possibly within the next few days.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Technomancer]

24/5/21

Madoc had to deal with a family emergency so we're not quite where we hoped to be for the week, we're still trying to get things ready for a beta patch any day now.

All the new UI systems are completed, and we've ported all our existing UIs for the game and development tools, HUD elements, menus, overlays etc. over to the new system. This is ready to go, and the core in game UI is using the new skin / look.

We're still making all sorts of procedural weapons and improving the system as we go. We've got falchions and messers ready, which was probably the most complex weapon type and contains a huge amount of unique assets, there's enough there to generate millions of combinations, and that's before all the shape, material and other randomisation. We've done our core polearm components, which completes the assemblies for all major weapon types. There's other improvements to procedural weapons, new deforms, more effects of shape on weapon attributes and more accurate models for how the parts of a weapon deliver damage and specific damage capabilities added by individual components of weapons.

We've also put the final touches on outdoor lighting and weather, and we'll be reintroducing outdoor arenas in this patch. We want to update some of the assets, but they'll do for now.

Besides the new user interface and procedural weapon updates there's a few gameplay tweaks and bug fixes in this patch. In particular we've been looking at some feedback about some attacks not performing or flowing as well as they could.

We've mostly got to decide which weapons are complete enough to go in a release and put it all together for a beta patch. There's a few more things in the works, but we can add it and more weapons in another patch shortly after.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Technomancer]

31/5/21

Still a difficult week for Madoc, but we should be able to drop the beta patch tomorrow or maybe even later today. We mostly covered what will be in this patch last week, but to reiterate that's new procedural weapons and improvements to existing ones, the new in game user interface, outdoor arenas, a few gameplay improvements and bug fixes.

The new weapons belong to 3 key categories: falchions/messers, pole arms and hafted weapons. Pole arms will be expanded on and improved, but basically at this point we just have to keep adding components to cover most weapons that will be in the game.


More Procedural Weapons
New procedural weapons in this patch covering some major categories for the procedural system.


Right now we're working on the final new gameplay mechanics for weapons, in particular switching grips and flipping weapons. It took us a while to figure out how to best handle this. The same weapon could have 3 different grips, and potentially flip its striking direction. This could mean defining up to 6 sets of stats for each of thousands of components, messy, difficult to do right and then maintain. We considered dropping the current weapon mechanics entirely and going with something that is based purely on points of impact, and doesn't really care how a weapon is being used, but after exploring this idea thoroughly we decided it would be too unpredictable and require too much precision from a player control perspective.

In the end we decided to go with a sort of hybrid approach that is versatile, but also easier to work with. Each component is given a category that explains its role in a weapon configuration, and different grips for different configurations know implicitly how these components will affect its properties during different actions and interactions. There's a bit more complexity in the system, but we can just make adjustments to the system and not worry too much about how our thousands of individual components are defined. Huge advantage, It's really easy to get started and add new configuration as we go, without changing data formats for weapons etc. We can start adding new grips for weapons right away.

There's a few more things in the works that we can talk about soon, but we're nearly done with mechanics and systems that we need for this update, and we've got some other nice arena content waiting to get included.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Technomancer]

Exanima 0.8.2 - Beta Branch

This update includes a batch of new procedural weapons and various improvements to the ones already in the game. These are getting pretty complex now so be sure to give us some feedback and let us know if any weapon configurations or stats seem odd. Note that pole hammers and knobbed maces are quite WIP as of now, we'll be expanding on these and making any adjustments over the next few days.

The procedural weapon component pool is growing, there's been various visual improvements and a lot of quite important mechanical changes. Components and how their shape and arrangement now have more significant effects on weapon stats.

The new user interface is also in game. We still need to fully transition all interfaces to the new system, which need a bit of rearrangement. The new skill interface will also receive more graphical elements.

Outdoor arenas are back in, with outdoor lighting, day night cycles, weather and atmospheric effects all redone for the new renderer. There's a lot going on here with all the possible interactions between lighting and weather conditions, so it will take some time to tweak everything properly and some conditions might look a bit odd or not as good as they should for now.

We've been looking at some feedback about some attacks not feeling quite right and not flowing well with other motions, so we've been done some tweaking. We've made quite a lot of changes, but the big ones concern overheads and thrusts for two handed weapons and pole arms.

Some important bug fixes, some minor fixes and a bunch of small improvements here and there as usual. Expect follow up hotfixes and tweaks over the next days as we get feedback on this release.


Changelog for Exanima 0.8.2:

• New in game graphical user interface

• New in game skill interface (skill graphics coming)

• New proc weapons: falchion/messer, grand falchion, pole hammer, knobbed mace

• More components, deformations and visual improvements to existing weapons

• Procedural weapons now gain specific stats from components

• Various new stat modifiers from procedural weapon shape parameters

• Improved various attack motions, particularly thrusts and overheads

• New outdoor lighting and weather effects

• Reintroduced outdoor arenas

• Increased effectiveness and duration of Embolden

• Fixed framerate limits not working

• Fixed a bug that could cause items to disappear from inventory

• Changed camera angle after exiting a match so that the match board is visible

• Many small fixes and improvements


Thanks and all the best,

Bare Mettle

 

[gurugeorge]

Given that these boys have been determinedly plugging away at this for years, wouldn't it be fair to remove the "Vaporware" tag?

 

[Technomancer]

Given that these boys have been determinedly plugging away at this for years, wouldn't it be fair to remove the "Vaporware" tag?

It would be. But a point can be made that SG never was released and is still many years away.

 

[Technomancer]

7/6/21

This week we released a significant update on the beta branch that includes the new user interface, some cool new procedural weapons and lots of improvements to that system, the outdoor arenas with the new lighting and weather effects, some combat improvements and a few other things. We also followed it up with a patch with fixes and further improvements.

With the new UI system complete now we can build the new arsenal, loadout and match systems properly, which are the main things needed for the revamped arena mode. There's a few other things we're actively working on, like alternate weapon grips, but there's not much left. We're going to try to add these things incrementally to the beta branch ASAP, and then put it all together with the new arena content we've got lined up. There's some nice new arenas, new armour and of course a bunch more procedural weapons on the way.

If you haven't opted into the beta branch yet, we'd recommend doing it now as the game is in a more complete state with even more to come. The remaining additions will hopefully happen quite quickly now, so stay tuned for more news.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Goldschmidt]

WTF is wrong with these game devs. They should implement agile. Agile as in fuckin AGILE; they should let them do sprints till the end of their lifetimes.

 

[Sibylla]

Isnt early access a beta? So you have to enable beta of a beta to see the new stuff, ok

 

[Technomancer]

14/6/21

We're currently trying to complete the new arena systems and UI features, as well as of course the remaining major procedural weapon types.

A big part of the arena overhaul is improving and simplifying how you manage your items and loadouts, we're redesigning how these systems work and the user interfaces, developing supporting features as we go.

An important core change here is the arsenal, we want to provide much more room for those growing item collections, persistent placement of items so you can arrange them neatly and to have more intuitive and simpler interactions in terms of moving items between loadouts, the environment, trade, etc.

There's a new dedicated arsenal screen that looks like this:


Arsenal Screen
A new dedicated arsenal screen to manage and arrange your item collection. This addition improves and simplifies a lot of the item and loadout management.


This essentially turns your arsenal into a giant container split into 5 categories and 5 tabs. In this screen you can view all 5 tabs at once to arrange your items, or your inventory and as many tabs as will fit to take items to place in the environment, dress up your manager etc. These tasks are much simpler, and we can streamline other interfaces by allowing them here.

The next main feature to complete is the new match board, which is split into 3 categories: standard matches that you can configure and run when you like, daily specials and the weekly tournament.

We've got another batch of procedural weapons on the way, so we might update the beta branch again soon with these and the new arsenal system.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Technomancer]

21/6/21

Work continues on the new arena systems and UIs, procedural weapons and other new arena content. We're just about done now with the management side of the arena overhaul, with lots of progress with the new user interface in general. From here we'll be focusing on the match system changes and content additions.

The new management and loadout screen is one of the more important and requested changes. This was cumbersome and confusing, and while the fairly complex loadout system is a requirement, we think we've done a lot to make it nicer and less confusing to use. We might still make some changes, but this is what the new screen looks like so far.


New Arena Management Screen
The new loadout screen is simplified and has various new features to make navigating and managing your loadouts easier.


With inventory functions moved to the new arsenal UI, you no longer have the confusing "dual inventories" but just a single view of all items used by the character. All item placement is persistent, and items used in the current rank loadout are highlighted.

The arsenal now has your 5 tabs, with again persistent item positions. Here items used in character loadouts will not be removed from the arsenal, but again highlighted so you know they are in use, so you don't have to move items in and out to move them between characters.

The skill UI here can be toggled, but you can get a complete overview of a character in just one screen.

We'll likely do another beta update soon with new UIs, management features and more procedural weapons. At this point though we should be getting close to the full arena update that includes the other new content too.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Technomancer]

28/6/21

We are currently working on various things at once, bringing the revamped arena mode towards completion, but also adding less critical features that we know people are looking forward to.

One thing we've been doing is implementing the multiple grip system. This allows certain weapons to be wielded in different ways, such as a longsword in one or two hands or flipping a war hammer to strike with the spike rather than a head. The solution we settled on is giving weapons a potential alternate grip and a flip, as separate functions and inputs. This means you might have two grips for a poleaxe, and be able to flip it for either grip, for a total of 4 configurations. The grip changes happen instanenously, so you can combo attacks from different grips without a delay.

We have the grip changes working, and we're figuring out the details like how this interacts with off-hand items, how the properties of weapons change, during which action states grip changes should occur etc.

We've also been working on the changes to the match system and various related mechanics and systems that concern NPCs, their loadouts, progression paths and trade. The new itemisation procedural features allow for much more varied and descriptive outfits even within the same rank, and we're moving towards making arena NPCs persistent, with their own careers, advancement, buying and selling items etc. This should make things more interesting and immersive, and also move everything in a direction that is more in line with eventual multiplayer features. This sort of gear acquisition and management AI is also important for general character behaviour within the world.

Procedural weapons are of course still being made, we're currently focusing on everything axes, but putting various other weapons together along the way as the shared component system is paying off. Here's some examples of new weapons:


More procgen weapons

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[mediocrepoet]

Man, will this thing ever be finished? I bought it and messed around with it years ago and it was fairly cool but weird to control back then. At least the control scheme was logical so it sort of blows my mind that they weren't fairly close to completing the Exanima tech demo at that point.

 

[Technomancer]

Exanima tech demo

Not a tech demo. The scope was increased massively, it is a standalone game with its own ambitions at this point.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Exanima tech demo

Not a tech demo. The scope was increased massively, it is a standalone game with its own ambitions at this point.

Oh, thanks for that. I really haven't been following this game. Is there any sort of ETA for completion or something that shows what the feature complete goal actually is?